The Mount Washington School

My daughter's experience was great. I appreciate the hard work of the former principal and I am excited about Principal Pinkney and the work he is doing at Roland Park.

This preschool is the best of the best. The community is warm and nurturing. The director is fantastic - an experienced teacher herself and beloved by the other teachers and parents. The teachers are exceptional — professional, experienced, dedicated. Previous to this school, our daughter attended 3 daycares in the DC metro area (each claimed to have preschool curriculums with all the “accreditations” … NAEYC, etc). The instructional quality at the daycares did not even come close, truly you cannot really even compare them. It was night and day. Grace Preschool provides everything you could want in an early childhood education environment. They go above and beyond with their programming and have a great sense of what is developmentally appropriate for each of the age groups. In particular the kindergarten program is so wonderful it’s almost surreal. The teacher is a highly skilled veteran teacher with a very kind and relaxed demeanor. The class size is small (but not too small) so they are able to get creative with their activities - e.g., every Friday they cook something related to the letter of the week. There’s also a nice sense of community among the students, no cliques or bullying. Most importantly, you can feel that your child is loved and cherished here. I feel so lucky we found this place. Only wish we could stay longer. It is a big source of joy for us to know that this is our daughter’s foundational school experience. I will always look back on the time she had at Grace Preschool with gratitude.

My daughter has attended RPCS for 2.5 years after leaving the local public elementary school. She was testing two grades below due to significant issues within her previous school. RPCS was able to get her caught up to grade level before the end of her first year. She was caught up not only by their own metrics but also the county metrics. I am also a teacher and know what her work should look like at her age range, and she is absolutely thriving. Two years later, she continues to grow and is now excited to go to school. It frustrates me to read the other reviews on this site because of the constant comparisons to the "Academic rigor" of other area private schools. Yes, the other schools may be more "rigorous" but that also makes the experience more stressful. There is a difference between learning and doing lots of busy work. At RPCS, the academics are there, and the teachers are wonderful about communicating how their students are doing. The class sizes are very small so students cannot hide, get away with doing nothing, or go without a check in for understanding. RPCS is as rigorous as it needs to be to get quality results. However, what they don't do, at least with the elementary school, is stress your child out. The workload is balanced and carefully considered. They know your child is active in extracurricular activities and there are only so many hours in a day. As a teacher, I can tell you that a stressed-out child does not learn as readily as a student who is comfortable. RPCS has been the perfect fit for our family, and I would highly recommend it to anyone. As an aside, every time I have visited the school, the staff are smiling and happy on the elementary school side. I have not seen any sign of discontent among the staff and many of the teachers have been working at the school for years.